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We all know the reason you work isn’t for the money. Hell, no! You work because you love the feeling of having to get up early every day, fighting fellow commuters, sitting at a desk and find your day’s (or life’s) meaning, feeling the burn from constant pressure to perform and perform and perform ever higher again and again, and then battling those same dipstick commuters to make it home in time to snuggle up to “The Office”, right? Who needs to know how to ask for a raise, anyway? Who needs salary negotiating tips anyway when just having a job is so damn satisfying?! No? Ok, then maybe you just really dig the comeraderie of your office colleagues. That’s it, you just needed some more friends to make everything better! Or you need a crown replaced and needed to pick up some dental coverage. No? I got it – you crave self worth and the only way to get it is to climb the ladder fast enough so you can tell others exactly what do to and where to go!
OK, enough sarcasm. You work to make money, period. Be Better Guys has ten tips to help you ask for a raise, negotiate that better salary, a bigger salary, a salary that makes you proud, or at least content enough to properly enjoy your crummy dental plan.
You work to make enough money so to live the life you want, money so you can stop working one day and still have enough leftover to spend and enjoy. All that other “stuff” that employers use to seduce you to accept a position (and a lower salary) is crap. You need to stand up for yourself at the critical moment in the interview process and hit a home run – the moment when you are asking your boss for a raise and negotiating the very best salary you can for yourself.
Money Don’t Matter Tonight. Just because Prince penned a great song with the aforementioned title doesn’t mean money doesn’t matter. It sure as hell does. But, you don’t show that it matters. Instead, resist bringing it up in the negotiation process until the very, very end. Show your interest in the job responsibilities, the organization in which you’ll be interacting, the career path, all that garbage that interviewers love to hear, but not the salary. Wait until you know the company wants you and makes the official verbal offer before you approach the money topic.
But They Just Asked Me What I Make, What Do I Say?! Salary negotiations are just like poker. Hardball poker. Don’t lay all of your cards on the table until you absolutely have to. And don’t lie about it to get a better salary at your new employer. Technology has made employers damn savvy and they will research you; if they find you’re stretching the truth, you’re out. Instead, be completely and unequivocally evasive. If the interviewer presses you, give a broad range. Or simply say, “I’m fully prepared to accept a reasonable market offer.”
So What’s “Reasonable”? Do research. If you’re interviewing at Chick-fil-A to be a line cook, the salary’s pretty well obvious. If you’re going for a sales position that may have a base salary and commission attached, or a job that has performance-based bonuses, root around the web, using sites like Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com, to get an idea of what salaries for comparable positions in your area run. Just like you researched the company so you could nail your interview, research the market so you know what you’re talking about come salary time. Laying out a number that’s way off-base devalues you and makes you appear like a moron.
It’s a 9-Inning Game. Don’t stop playing once you reach the 8th. Even if things are going extremely well and you can smell the offer in the air like an Angus burger cookin’ on the grill, keep selling yourself and your past performance. Even after the offer is made, it’s incumbent upon you to prove to your employer that you’re a stud and to reinforce that when you do drop a salary number on them (or they on you), that you’re fully justified in requesting or negotiating that salary figure.
I’m in Deep Water and Sinking! Salary negotiations can get hot and heavy before you’re ready to state your case. Like in the very first introductory interview. Which happened to me. And I stepped right into the trap, got lowballed, and missed a real opportunity to start at a higher base, like colleagues of mine (as I later found out). I learned the hard way that if an interviewer is pushing to talk figures before an actual offer’s even made, your response will be as follows: “I’m fully prepared to accept a reasonable market offer.”
D’oh, Know What You’re Accepting! In another job I had, I thought I understood the compensation package. I didn’t. I got screwed. And I should have asked at the outset for a further explanation of the comp plan and negotiated forward from there, because once you sign the offer letter, you’re committed. Keep asking until you fully understand how much bonuses are, when they’re paid, how much vacation, sick days, personal leave you get, what the retirement package is, how stock options are handled – know about all of it and don’t just hope it’ll all work out. It won’t, trust me.
Know When to Say When. You can negotiate a perfectly willing employer right out of your own job by not recognizing when they’ve gone as far as they’re gonna go and the ball’s with you to accept or walk. Keep pushing the topic when the employer’s a their limit and they’ll rescind the offer and give your job to someone else. They make an offer, you counter, they revise the offer, you counter again, one more revision from the employer and it’s put-up-or-shut-up time for you. No more countering at that point.
There Are Alternatives to a Big Base Salary. Be advised that you may not be getting the biggest base that you could based on your credentials, but there may be many other financial perks that can make for an overall bigger total package. Benefits like a signing bonus, stock options, profit-sharing, and merit-based bonuses can make up for a lower-than-satisfying base. Know the whole package.
But Don’t Be A Greedy S.O.B. Mazel tov, as my people say, the company wants you. And they’re throwing all kinds of bennies your way. Great job, brother. Don’t fumble it by asking, “So, the stock options are great, but I was thinking about a figure more like 10,000 shares instead of the 1,000 you’re offering.” Goodbye, interviewee. Sometimes it’s good to just recognize you’re getting a pretty good deal , sign it, and let’s move on.
- I’m Not Having Fun and I Want To Go Home. Then walk. If an offer isn’t what you feel you can live off of that will give you the opportunity to earn fair market value and afford you a satisfying living, then walk away. Professionally, of course. Don’t be afraid to reject an offer that doesn’t meet your expectations (unless you have absolutely no hope of getting hired by anyone else ever again and this is your only option, other than living in a refrigerator box under the overpass). You won’t hear from that company again, but you don’t have to accept a sucky offer just because it’s an offer. You wouldn’t accept a sucky date just to have something to do on Saturday night, would you? Oh, you would? Yeah, I guess I’ve done that, too.
Negotiating a salary, just like asking for a raise, is amazingly uncomfortable, perhaps only topped by getting a sigmoidoscopy (that’d be a rectal exam) or breaking off your engagement to the boss’ daughter ‘cause she’s a complete nutburger. The main thing to keep in mind is if you’re wanted by the company, and you can tell when you are by how much they smile at you, then you’re in control. Again, it’s poker – stay cool, don’t show your hand, know you’re competing with others so be cognizant of the field, and above all, play to win. Because, sure, we know you really love the money. But it’s the driving on the freeway, finishing your shave at 75 mph, getting cut off by some soccer mom juggling her cell phone, latte and kiddie’s chew toy, late for another 8 am forecast review with your boss (who’s just had his ass chapped by his boss for coming up short last quarter) that really gets the ol’ juices flowing and makes work such a thoroughly satisfying source of gratification. Yeah. Right.
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